Asphalt Gets in on the ARRA Act
Projects get boost from stimulus

Projects moving forward with ARRA funds

By Mary Lou Jay

An overview of the completed Three Points project, which rebuilt the intersection of U.S. 83 and SH 359 and several city streets in Laredo. Price Construction of Big Springs was the contractor. The red median area to the right holds the specially constructed, architectural cantaro pots.

It has been a difficult year for Texas road builders, with the price of asphalt reaching all-time highs, the number of construction projects reduced because of TxDOT’s budget woes and the threat of delayed payments looming due to the insolvency of the federal Highway Trust Fund.

But the next few years should be better. In addition to the work that contractors can expect to bid under TxDOT’s normal construction program, they will be able to vie for more than 300 contracts for 22 projects funded in part under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. TxDOT received approximately $2.6 billion from the stimulus package.

An opening celebration for the Three Points Project.

One of those projects is the construction of the Cuarto Vientos outside of Laredo, which is being funded by $88.7 million in stimulus money. The new, 7-mi road will extend Loop 20 around Laredo from SH 359 to Magana-Hein Road and will provide a parallel route on the south side of east Laredo to alleviate the traffic problems on U.S. 83.

The majority of the project design work was completed several years ago, but there was only $24 million in funding, not enough to build the entire length. The stimulus money will enable TxDOT to complete all construction during the next two years.

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The Cuarto Vientos project was not included on TxDOT’s initial list of proposed stimulus projects. “The city manager, mayor, a county judge and two state representatives went to speak to the Texas Transportation Commission to get the project added to the stimulus list,” says Albert Quintanilla, Laredo District engineer for TxDOT.

They were successful in their appeal, so the district pieced together all the necessary funds for the project from a variety of sources. The local Metropolitan Planning Organization allocated $5.2 million of the $8.2 million it received in stimulus funding; another $24 million came through coordinated border infrastructure funds that had been allocated to Webb County; $31.5 million came from TxDOT through the federal stimulus package; and the Texas Transportation Commission awarded the project $28 million from Proposition 14 bond revenues.

The Laredo District will complete right-of-way acquisitions by June and expects to have all utility adjustments finished by December. It will let the project in August and work should begin by October.

During the early stages of excavation on the Three Points project in the Laredo District, truck-haul excavation was a challenge for the contractor due to large rock which amounted to 400,000 cu yds.

There will be two packages, a $63.5-million job that covers the roadway portion from 359 south to Magana-Hein Road and another $24-million project for an overpass at loop 20 and SH 359 that will connect Loop 20 to the Cuarto Vientos. The expected completion date is fall 2011.

“This project will help relieve traffic congestion for the community,” Quintanilla says. “But one of the reasons for the stimulus package was economic recovery, and this road will open up a new corridor for economic development here in Laredo.”

Architectural challenge for road builderAnother major project in Laredo will also help ease traffic congestion. Price Construction of Big Springs, Texas, spent 2.5 years on the $30-million Three Points Project and rebuilt the intersection of US 83, Highway 359 and several city streets.

The project replaced an existing, at-grade intersection bottleneck. “The traffic signals at the intersection would cause traffic to back up so far that it would sometimes take 20 to 30 minutes to get through,” says Ted Teegarden, project manager at Price Construction. “In addition, the existing U.S. 83 was only four lanes, and Highway 359 only two lanes. We rebuilt U.S. 83 to six lanes for about 1 mi. along with three overpasses for SH 359 and Arkansas Avenue.

The Three Points project involved the construction of a new intersection for U.S. 83, SH 359 and several city streets in Laredo. Work included widening of U.S. 83 from four lanes to six and the construction of several new overpass bridges.

“There is now no stopping forintersection SH 359 and U.S. 83 traffic, and there are four different freeway-type ramps connecting the two roads.”

Teegarden says project plans originally called for the work to be completed in nine phases, “but we were able to work with TxDOT and complete it in five phases. The amount of truck-haul excavation was a challenge, especially since we encountered large amounts of rock during excavation—about 400,000 cu yds of material.”

The project team also had to maintain motorists’ access to the businesses that surrounded the project area.

Over the course of the job, workers placed 20,000 cu yds of concrete and 41,000 tons of asphalt pavement and installed 7,000 ft of storm-pipe drain and 12 mi of conduit and electrical wire for traffic signals and the traffic-management system.

Price Construction faced a unique requirement on the job: construction of three architectural cantaro pots, each measuring about 12-ft high and 10-ft wide, for the median area. The contractor originally planned for the pots to be built in precast segments, but the approach was not feasible and Price constructed a frame and interior form for the pots and used shotcrete to build them in one piece.

Bridge for a railroad TxDOT’s Fort Worth District will be letting more than 25 stimulus-funded projects. The largest portion of the money will go for construction of sections of SH 121, a partial toll road, in Tarrant County.

The district is also building—without any stimulus money involved—the initial phase of planned improvements to the SH 360 corridor in Arlington. W.W. Webber LLC of Houston is the contractor on this $56-million project. It will include reconstruction of two Division Street bridges, one eastbound and one westbound, and construction of a railroad bridge at the intersection of SH 360 and SH 180 in Arlington.

“The frontage roads don’t go over the railroad, so traffic is forced onto the highway,” says Val Lopez, TxDOT public information officer in Fort Worth. We are going to build a new railroad bridge and push the frontage roads through, thereby eliminating a terrible bottleneck in that area. We’ll also be rebuilding the interchanges so there will be easier and better access from Division Street the major artery there to SH 180.”

The construction of the Union Pacific railroad bridge will require a slight realignment of the railroad tracks to the south.

The remainder of SH 360 will have to wait until additional funds become available from TxDOT.